rc said:
Now the computer using the new disk will not boot. The windows XP screen
begins and then promptly keeps attempting to restart. As far as I could
tell the migration went ok (solely based on the completion messages/results
given by the Acronis software). I'm assuming the migration would include
making the disk bootable???
Before I attempted any "cloning" I formatted the new disk and ran ckdsk and
no errors were reported. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
That sounds like you partitioned the disk, and then used Acronis to
copy just the files across. Perhaps you could use Acronis to just
make a complete copy of the old C: partition ? That is likely the
easiest option. I'm not an Acronis user, as I have enough junk
of one sort and another here, to get the job done.
*******
When I've done that (just copy files from old partition, to newly
prepared formatted partition), the bit that is missing is the boot
sectors. A program like Robocopy (Microsoft) can be used to copy files
and preserve permissions and so on. But it doesn't copy the boot sectors.
The boot sectors can be put back, by using the Recovery Console and "fixboot".
You take a WinXP installer CD, boot that, and select Recovery Console.
"fixboot" is a command available, once you're running in the Recovery Console.
It isn't clear to me, how you'd get a Recovery Console, if you had a Dell.
"Recovery Console overview"
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...roddocs/en-us/bootcons_diskpart.mspx?mfr=true
"To install the Recovery Console as a startup option"
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...roddocs/en-us/bootcons_diskpart.mspx?mfr=true
(List of commands, including fixboot. Fixboot accepts a drive letter, so you
can fix that new disk.)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058
So perhaps there is some other option in Acronis. It would be pretty
silly if it couldn't copy a bootable partition with it. I don't use
Acronis here. (Copying sector by sector, then using Partition Magic,
is the way I do it.)
*******
To copy sector by sector, I use "dd" or Disk Dump. There is even a
port for Windows. If your new disk is bigger than the old disk, you
can copy the entire disk with one command, like this
dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb
That would copy all the partitions from one disk to another, and
even copy the MBR in sector 0. The Windows port of "dd", uses
a different naming convention for disks (the Windows naming conventions),
but you use the "dd --list" option, to get names for all the disks.
Once the disk is copied, the partitions would be the wrong size.
By using my copy of Partition Magic, I could resize any partition
as desired. Since the new disk is bigger than the old, I might resize
one of the partitions, to use the slack space left on the new disk.
If I wanted to copy just one partition, in the Linux world the partitions
are numbered. The Windows naming convention also numbers the partitions.
(Partition0 is the whole disk. Partition1 is just the first partition.)
dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hdb1
I would first need to make a new entry in the MBR of the output disk.
I set that up using "fdisk" in Linux, which allows me to define
primary partitions on a new disk. I suppose I could also do that
from Disk Management, and save time by not formatting the partition.
(Since I'm about to replace all the sectors in that partition by doing
a sector by sector copy.) Then, I can use "dd" to copy the
sectors.
So it is easy to be a bit more surgical, but the problem remains
that the partition must be resized after this step is complete.
There is at least one free package for Windows, that will do
partition resizing. I have an older copy of Partition Magic, that
I use once in a while for this, so I haven't needed to use the free
one. (Since you'd only be using the free partition resizer on your
new, cloned disk, there is little danger of any permanent damage,
as you can start over again if it screws up.)
The port of "dd" is here. This runs in a Command (MSDOS) window.
http://www.chrysocome.net/dd
To review the four primary partition entries, if I'm in Windows,
I can use this. ptedit32 is a free download. This allows me to
compare the partitions of the source and destination disks, if I
need to. (I can also do that using "fdisk" in Linux if I wanted.
It all depends on where I am, as to which I might use.) I use this,
when I need exact numbers for sizes.
PTEDIT32 for Windows
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip
PTEDIT32 screenshot
http://www.vistax64.com/attachments...n-partiton-recovery-dell-xps-420-dell-tbl.gif
Basically, what I'd be looking for there, is confirmation that the
source partition and destination partition, are the same size. So
there are no "accidents" when using "dd".
"dd" can be used to copy all or a part of something. It takes
a block size argument, a count argument, and using those arguments
can make "dd" run about three times faster. The command also accepts
seek and skip options, for snipping just a section out of a partition
or a single file. I haven't given any examples of that in the above,
but I have used seek/skip, when trying to find the metadata on a
raid array. Since I don't have a disk editor program, I can snip a
couple meg up near the end of the disk, and then use a regular hex
editor to look at the data.
*******
I think getting Acronis to take care of this, is your best option right
now. Screwing around is for when you've got more time. I learned how
to do this stuff, by experimenting, and when you take the time into
account for making mistakes, this isn't a one day learning experience.
So far (knocks on wood), I haven't destroyed any source disks
Paul
